The writing of ‘Death to the Dictator!’

A new book provides a window into Iran in 2009, after Western journalists were forced to leave. “Death to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran’s 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price” is an insider’s account of one voter’s experience in detention after the bloody protests that followed last summer’s presidential election in Iran.

The book was written under the pseudonym ‘Afsaneh Moqadam,’ a pen name meant to protect the author’s identity from the Iranian government. Our guests, Roger Cohen, a columnist for our partner The New York Times and Azadeh Moaveni, who wrote a review of the book in The New York Times Book Review, both say that despite the author’s anonymity, they think the story is true.